Moro's Life
by darth rat
Summary: Moro's life-from her birth to her death, and why the Shishigami chose her to live. Please R
1. Birth

I own only my characters, like Saria, Kikyu, Naku etc. The rest are Miyazaki's.

**Chapter 1: Birth**

I don't know where I was born. My mother had separated from her mate. It was violent. As she stumbled away into the forest, dark red blood staining beautiful fur she collapsed in a hill side. She was young, foolish. She left her tribe, abandoned all of her bloodlines to bond with a lone wolf. Ironic. Bloodlines. Blood pooling in the forest. Wounds on her legs, her face, her chest, throat almost punctured. Her tail, bitten off. Life mates do not part. If one dies, than the other will not take a new mate. There are reasons for the code of bonding. The age you have to be. Mother was not a god; rather she was going to be the successor when her mother, my grandmother, died. But she was rash, and it was mating season. She did not think. There was a reason he was not in a pack. He was an outcast. A killer. But apparently a more mature, 80 year old wolf was able to seduce her. But it does not matter. In any case, Mother was too young to give birth. At 20 years, she was not prepared for the rigors of labor, much less with a torn femoral artery. All of what I say is from what I have been told. Mother was already dead when she gave birth. She was supposed to give birth to 14 pups, at the most. There were 19 of us. My first memory, before my eyes were even open, was a smiling face. The Shishigami, The Forest Spirit, was there. He gave me and my siblings life. But he also chose me. I was always bigger than my brothers and my sisters, smarter and stronger. Unlike their white and black spotted coats that my father had given them, mine was pure snow white. The most obvious sign was my tail. Or should I say tails? I was the only pup with two tails. I knew I would one day become a god. Almost 20 pups would be an immense challenge for a healthy mother to raise. She would need help from other members of the pack. But we had no mother. She had no pack. We could not even see. Our eyes were glued shut. We needed our mother's milk, but we did not have it. So instead we had to eat her carcass. It was a horrible thing to do, but we were wolfs. We were survivors. The pups that balked at the idea of us consuming her died. Only 8 of us had food. The other 11 died. Understand, we needed milk. Our stomachs could not handle just raw food. But the Shishigami was with us. He allowed us to consume raw food. We grew faster than we should have. Our eyes opened early. We had no names. Or so we thought. After half a year of life, we found a cave 20 yards from where we were born, where our mother died. As her dying effort, she had scratched out four names:

KIKYU

NAKU

SARIA

MORO

Why only four? She knew she would have a litter of over four pups. And who was who? As we looked closer at the writing, we could see that underneath each name, in exquisite detail, there was a carving of what we looked like…us. Carvings are not the right word. It looked like it had been gently melted in the cave wall. It was too neat for a dying wolf to make. I knew. It was the Shishigami. It was not a terrible trouble figuring out what our names were after we found the carvings. The markings for my brothers, Kikyu and Naku, and my sister, Saria, were, after close examination of the carvings, able to get their small brains around what they should be called. I had no trouble. For my carving had a wolf with two tails. My name was Moro.


	2. My Brother

I only own the characters that made. Well, technically I can't own a crocodile...

**Chapter 2: My Brother  
**

Mother and the Shishigami had a reason for only naming me, Kikyu, Naku, and Saria. The other four remaining pups fates were to be caught by a predator, tramped by boars, fell of a cliff, and one drowned in a river. The remaining four of us had a generally good time. We established our den in the cave where we found our names, and slept under the carvings that the Forest Spirit made. At the time, we thought that we would live in that den for the rest of our lives. Later, certain circumstances prevented that. Of the four of us, I was the leader. At 4 years of age, I was already half the size of a normal adult and physically mature. I was closest to Saria, as she was my sister. Because she had an unusually small size (though not the runt of the litter, he had already died), I may have felt even more protective of her. She also had a very attractive black splotch that ran down her mostly white body from muzzle to the tip of her tail. Kikyu and Naku were just beginning to develop physically, and it was obvious that they were headstrong and reckless. At first it was annoying. By the time I was 5, it became a serious problem.

On the 5th anniversary of our birth, my brothers decided to try to catch fish where the ocean met the river. Remember, the forest I am in now is not the forest I grew up in. It was a half day run to get there, so by the time we got to the estuary we were tired. Naku had hurt his leg in a play fight with Kikyu recently. It had been over a piece of deer leg. Because of high tempers, it could have been a fight to the death if I hadn't intervened. Every day we grew I felt more and more like a mother figure to them, scolding them and trying to keep them out of harms way.

Saria did not like the water. She balked at the thought of even touching it, and I had to bite her on her flank to get her to take a bath. Kikyu wanted to jump right in, but not without Naku. Naku cautiously limped over to the water, but when he got to the edge he felt the need to jump in. As Kikyu and Naku played in the water, they quickly forgot about fishing. Again feeling like a mother, I lay down on the bank and watched them, looking for trouble. As I lay there, Saria snuggled up to me. Even though I normally would have dwarfed her, she was smaller than usual, and was able to use my shadow for shade.

I had always had a 6th sense for danger, and something did not feel right. After looking down at Saria, who was now curled up in a ball of fur, asleep, I gently got up, as I did not want to wake her, and slowly walked towards by brothers. Unbeknownst to us, we had a deadly visitor. It was not until many years later that I learned what kind of creature tore away our predictable and comfortable lifestyle. It was a crocodile.

Without any warming, Kikyu disappeared in a splash of water and blood. Just under the surface, the attacker went into a death role and snapped my bother's neck, killing him. This was not a god. It was not a demon. It was just an unusually large and sadistic crocodile that happened to find prey at a random estuary. This crocodile was not hungry when it killed my beloved brother. Rather, it just wanted to kill, its tiny brain demanding bloodshed. As it let go of Kikyu and let his mangled, lifeless body float to the surface, I took off after the killer. But I had miscalculated, and headed for the wrong direction. Naku, with his injured leg, had tried to escape by swimming out to sea, hoping the killer would not see him. But it did. As it grabbed his already hurt leg and prepared to go into another death roll, I realized I was too far way to get to him. I couldn't believe it. Half my family, dead in one day? But then I saw an unbelievable sight. Little Saria, who would not touch the sea for anything, taking a running jump off the side of the ocean, landing on the crocodile's back. She was too tiny, and her fangs and claws too small. She could not hurt it. She could only distract it. But it gave Naku time to get away. And for me to act.

I jumped into the water and sunk my fangs into the tip of the crocodile's tail. It lost all interest in Saria and turned to its latest annoyance. I planned to be more than an annoyance to it. As it hissed in pain and snapped around to get me, I let go and slid up its body until I reached its belly. I wrapped my legs around it, and we were locked together, belly to belly. He dove far underwater, with me attached to him. He rolled, dived, tried anything to get me off, but to no avail. I opened my mouth and began tearing at the crocodile's soft underbelly. I started ripping through skin and muscle, hoping to get at its heart. But this came at a price. Already woozy from lack of oxygen, I stared getting saltwater in my lungs. But I ignored the searing pain, and resumed my attack, finally reaching his organs. I chewed my way into his kidneys, his stomach, his lungs, and finally his heart. He stopped struggling. I stayed under for as long as I could, making sure he wasn't faking. He wasn't. He sank to the bottom, and I managed to paddle my way back to the surface and sweet air. I immediately saw that we had a problem. The current had moved me, my sister, and my brother (it hurt too much to think about the fact that I only had one brother now) out into the open ocean. Naku could not swim with his injuries, and poor Saria had no idea how to swim. I first went to Saria. _((Bite my neck!_)) I ordered. She complied, sinking her teeth hard into the loose skin that was at the nape of my neck. It was deep enough to draw blood, but I did not care. She was attached to me. I managed to swim over to Naku, who was almost unconscious from loss of blood. Just like Saria did to me, I grabbed his neck a hard as I could without seriously injuring him. To my dismay, he was so delirious from shock and blood loss that he did not even yelp. I tried to swim back to shore, but I only succeeded in moving out of the open ocean and into a water current that loosely followed the coast. My strength exhausted, I let the water carry me and my family, and hoped that the Shishigami was with us.


	3. Any Sanctuary in a Storm

Miyazaki owns Moro and the Shishigami.

**Chapter 3: Any Sanctuary in a Storm**

The farther we floated, the more hope I lost. We could not talk to each other, because both Saria and my own mouth were busy trying to keep us together. Naku was the only one who had his mouth free, but he almost always did not talk. Sometimes, I had to press my body close to him to feel if his heart was still beating. The few times he spoke he asked where Kikyu was. I would not answer. I could not even think about my dear, dead brother. A traditional wolf funeral is moving the body into a special part of a forest for them to decompose and join with the forest. But Kikyu's body would be dragged out to sea, and eaten by loathsome scavengers. After a while, he stopped talking. I knew we had to find a place to get ashore soon, or we would die. Of all my siblings, I was in the best physical shape. On top of that, I only had a few injuries. I also had two wolves to give me body heat in the frigid water. Naku was loosing blood fast, and my little Saria was freezing to death. But with saltwater in my lungs, I could barely breath, much less paddle us to shore. But then I saw hope. We were rounding a bend, and there was a small peninsula that we were floating towards. But my hopes were soon dashed as another current carried us out to sea. For the next few days, I drifted in and out of consciousness. I managed to make sure that Saria was still attached to me, and the rest of my strength was holding on to Naku and looking where we were going. Finally, I spotted a speck on the horizon. We were being carried to it. At first I was overjoyed. But then, to my horror, I saw that while we were approaching land, it was not the same island we grew up on. But in a storm you take any sanctuary you can get. Speaking of storms, I managed to open my left eye, the one that was not submerged in water. The sky was dark, and a storm was brewing. Gathering the last of my strength, I paddled furiously with my hind legs, driving us onto a beach.

I managed to crawl up to where the tide could not reach me and collapsed. I gently removed my jaws from Naku's neck, and I fell down. Little Saria was able to slowly hobble over to me and Naku. I slowly looked over at where Naku lay. He had stopped bleeding. He had also stopped breathing. In a desperate attempt to revive him, Saria started to lick him on the face, trying to get his attention. In mind, I was far more mature then she was. The Forest Spirit had given me that. She was just a pup. She actually thought she could help him. After a couple of minutes she stopped. And then she started to cry. All this time I had not shed a tear over Kikyu. I had not shed a tear when I knew that Naku was going to die. I had been torn up inside of me, but I had not allowed my little, fragile sister see my tears. But then they started flowing from my eyes, both sad and angry tears. Why? Why did he die? Why did Kikyu die? The Shishigami had saved us from the time we were born. Why had fate turned on us? He had made sure we would know our names. We were the ones that made it. And now both of my dear brothers were gone. I also wept for my little sister. She was going to die too. She was almost frozen, and she was sluggish. I too was freezing. My efforts to get us ashore had drained the last of my energy. Saria made it to my side and collapsed. It was too much for me to keep my eyes open. As my eyes closed, I saw the face of the Shishigami. Just like when I was born, my eyes glued together. Was this what death was like? Was I doomed to a hell where the face of the one that had given me false hopes about my family was all that I could see? I felt an urge to bite his damn head off, but I could not move. And then my eyes opened.

I saw the Shishigami standing over me, hooves in the sand right next to me. I looked up into his always smiling face. And then I felt warm. I stopped feeling tired. I managed to scramble up to my feet. He had revived me. As he walked over to where Saria lay, I was overjoyed. But then I remembered. We were not in our forest. He could not be here. He was just an illusion. ((Why do you come back to haunt me! _Why!_)) I yelled at him.

He stopped and turned to me. He did not talk, but I got an impression from him. He was real. He revived Saria, and then Naku. And he walked away into the forest. Naku came snuffling about, rubbing his nose on by fur, asking where Kikyu was. Tearfully I told him. He was so close to his brother. He buried his muzzle in my fur and cried for a long time. Saria came over to him and licked him on the ear, just as she had done when he was dead. Then the three of us huddled together and slept. Even to this day I do not know if I died or not. But it did not matter. That night, huddled together, I finally understood. Why should the Shishigami be limited to one forest? He was the forest. He was in every forest. And I knew he had a plan for me. But I had done enough thinking. My muzzle still damp from weeping, I curled up tight with my family and fell asleep.


	4. A New Home

Still don't own it.

**This chapter seemed to take forever to write. Oh well.**

**Chapter 4: A New Home**

We did not have much trouble adapting to our new home. To our surprise, it was much like our previous home. We were fearful at first. Not knowing where we were. Not knowing what was out there. We found a temporary shelter in a cave just off the beach. It was small, and we knew it could only serve as a short term den. We should have gathered our strength and started exploring our new environment at once, but we could not. We were still grieving. We were also frustrated. Not only were we denied the privilege of having Kikyu's body join with the earth, we could not have our passing ceremony. To honor the dead, we honor them by singing. The songs we sing are howled into the sky, a farewell gift. We did not need anybody to tell us this. It was instinct, as burned into our minds as how to kill prey would be. We were afraid. If we howled, what would come? We needed to gain our strength and recover from the void Kikyu's loss had opened in our hearts. But Naku could not fully recover. He and his brother were so close. It was impossible for him to fully be the same, happy wolf he had been before. He might have even wanted to join Kikyu, and leave this world. But we were wolfs. We were survivors. Because of safety reasons, when ever one of us left our den, all of us left. We had already lost one of our own, we were not about to loose another.

We found drinking water at a stream near our temporary den. We ate fish, and when ever we did we thought of Kikyu and the crocodile. When ever something shifted under the water, I had to fight the urge to scramble out of the water with my tails between my legs. Saria loved to walk up and down the beach. I knew she needed to do something, so I let her. But I was never more than ten feet from her, as was Naku. After around two weeks, we decided that we would leave and find a new home. We went on one last beach walk. As we walked, I noticed that Saria had stopped. She stood, fascinated by something in the sand. It was a pair of beautiful shells. I could see she wanted to have them, and she picked them up with her teeth. But after a minute she got distracted and dropped them. After five minutes of frantic searching, she was not able to find them. Disappointed, she returned to the cave for our last night in it. She did not notice that I had picked them up after she had dropped them. I used my tongue to push them to a corner of my enormous jaws. After being satisfied that hey would not come loose, I joined my brother and sister in sleep. I would give them to Saria when she most needed them.

At daylight we moved out. We traveled, taking in the new scenery. It was not very different then home. We spotted some familiar types of animals and some new ones. As dusk came we did not sleep. We had to keep moving. But we did need to eat. Naku and I quickly brought down a deer. Saria decided to hunt one of the new little creatures that jumped about. They were small, furry, and had ears that stood up straight. I now know that hey were rabbits, but at the time we called them hoppers. We had fun as Saria chased after one, scrambling about to get ahead of it. Eventually she caught it. We sat down and ate our meat. It felt so good to eat more than just fish. I felt the still warm blood of the deer trickle down my throat, and the taste of its tender muscles. After we were finished Saria and Naku played tug of war over a bone. I knew Saria did not actually like tug of war. But Naku and Kikyu had both played every night, and I knew she wanted to cheer him up. A part of me was sad that I had to be the leader of our group. I was essentially their mother now, as I cared for them and protected them. As I looked upon them, I could tell they were weary. Changing our plans, we found a clearing and my siblings lay down in it. I waited until they were asleep, and then I settled down next to them. I was not tired; I had a far greater endurance than they did. After an hour of guarding their sleeping bodies, I spotted a golden light glowing. Breaking my cardinal rule, I left Naku and Saria to follow the light. What I saw was a pool. It was large, and had a little island in the middle of it. I tentatively put one paw in the water and immediately I could tell that it was sacred. It was then that I looked up. I saw the Shishigami. It was in the process of turning into the nightwalker. It turned its head towards me and I saw that perpetual smile on his face. Then, briefly illuminated in his glow, I spotted a little outcropping of rock, hundreds of feet above me. It looked beautiful. The Forest Spirit had now given me another gift. A home.

I returned to my family and proceeded to watch over them. At daylight we moved out. Cautiously, we moved through huge boar tracks. We did our best to avoid the creators of those tracks. Indeed, for a long time we never saw any of them. After a day and night more of traveling we reached the den I had spotted. It was a beautiful cave, with an outcropping that reached high above the forest. I immediately knew this would be our new den. As my dear sister and brother curled up together inside the cave, I remained on watch. Lately, I had been having no sleep. I had stayed awake to protect my family, but exhaustion took hold of me. It was of no surprise to me that my eyelids started to droop, and my head started to lower. As I was barley asleep, I looked far out to the sea and saw something. But I was tired. It was probably nothing. Later I would curse myself for not taking a closer look. It was a black wolf, paddling his way to shore.

**A black wolf...Also, Moro's new "den" is supposed to be the one on the movie. Please Review!**


	5. Practice Session

Just going to say it: I don't own Mononoke-hime.

**Yet another chapter... Please R&R**

**Chapter 5: Practice Session**

The next ten years seemed to flow by. My choice for our permanent den seemed to be a good one. It was near the pool which I had identified as the Shishigami's realm, and had a source of drinking water and many deer herds nearby. Saria's shells were no longer in my mouth. I had found a spot twenty paces away from the den, buried deep enough that Saria would not find them. I was now the size of an average adult wolf. Naku was growing just like he was supposed to. Saria had not grown at all. Physically. She had realized that she was never gong to be able to be as strong as Naku or me, so she decided to think up strategies.

One day, within my 13th year of life, she showed me just how cunning she could be. Naku had been practicing fighting with me almost every day. Every time we practiced was sad for me, as I was an instructor, not a play mate in these fights. Naku was very strong physically, but lacked much of an idea of how to beat an opponent besides just using brute strength. One day, when I was trying to get him to learn how to think, Saria came by. She asked if she could play. After moment of hesitation I agreed. I did not want to hurt her, so I decided to go easy on her. I called the start, and began a slow move to the right…and then the next thing I knew was that I was lying on the ground with Saria's jaws around my throat. ((How...how?)) I managed to choke out. Saria bared her teeth in a wolf's grin. ((You went easy on me because you expected to win so much that I had a window of opportunity. Think. Remember what you saw happen.)) I looked back at our quick match. I had an excellent memory, so replaying my defeat was easy. I moved to the right…and Saria had bounded in, dived under my head and clawed the inside of my right front leg. As I started to fall, she jumped up on my neck, pushing it to the ground and placing her teeth on my throat. ((That wouldn't have beaten me if I had been using my full strength.)) I said, feeling like I was a pup whining about how unfair it was. Saria nodded. ((But you weren't using your full strength. Always take advantage of your enemy's weakness. Again?)) I nodded. This time I was feeling angry and humiliated at my defeat. I could hear Naku snickering as he watched me preparing to fight. I charged Saria dead on. She sat there, not moving. She did not move until I was within ten feet of her. She leapt into the air, heading right towards me. By the time I figured out what she was doing it was too late. I had been closing on her using my full speed, sprinting as fast as I could. When she jumped, she partially turned in mid air. I felt her back collide with the sensitive part of my snout. I yelped in pain as my vision turned red. I heard a grunt of pain from Saria, but that was all. It took a minute for me to gain the strength to open my eyes. What I saw was Saria sitting down right next to me, grinning and panting hard, her paw on my throat. ((You let anger blind you.)) she said. ((Once again, but start over.))

As the day went on, we played. She won some of the time, and I won some of the time, although not as much as I would have liked too. Then Naku joined in, and we tussled around in the grass, having fun. As the sun started to go down, we headed to our den. On the way back I realized something. For that enjoyable part of time, I had not acted as a mother, someone who is watching over and always instructing. We acted like brother and sisters, and after my first two rounds withy Saria I had so much fun. I had not had that much fun since I was a pup. The day should have ended on a good note, but as we walked back to our den, I felt that someone was watching us.


	6. The First Demon

I don't own Mononoke-hime.

**I could really need some help, so _please _review if you have the chance,**

**Chapter 6: The First Demon**

A year after my first practice session with Saria, I felt happier than I had ever felt before. Our pack, though it was only three wolfs strong, did everything together. We hunted, played, and explored together. We would venture out into the woods, but so far we had only seen Kodamas, the little tree spirits, and on occasion both the Shishigami's night form. We did almost everything together. Every night, desperately wanting to sleep with my family, I stood guard above them, only sleeping when they were awake. We had a comfortable routine, but it was getting old. We decided to move out, and look for other creatures. After only two thirds of a days travel, we encountered the boars. As we walked into a clearing, we heard a pounding noise. Reacting on instinct, I dove as far to my left as I could. I felt something clip my flank. It was painful, and it drew blood. As I hobbled up I saw a boar. Even bigger than I was, he had charged me. I took the time to look around. Saria was nowhere to be seen, and Naku was lying on his side in the grass. I could see some of his ribs sticking out of his side. Broken. He was badly injured. ((Damn boar! Show yourself, you coward!)) I roared. The boar stomped into the clearing. His tusks were still wet with Naku's blood. ((Brainless pig! What the hell are you doing?!)) He looked at me with eyes full of hatred. ((They did it! You will all suffer! Die!)) he roared madly. Without warning, snake-like tendrils started to whip put from his side. They reeked of evil. As the tendrils started to consume his body, I noticed that he had what appeared to be three our four sticks lodged in his stomach. I lunged for the boar. Some of its tendrils lashed out at me, burning though my fur and on to my skin. I ignored the searing pain and tackled him. He was too heavy for me to completely tip over. But he rocked a bit. I bit him on the neck. Hard. He squealed in pain. As he backed off, wounded, I felt elated. I had won! But then the boar came back into the clearing, holding Saria in his jaws. He dropped her to the ground. And then he stepped on her. The pressure crushed the bones in her legs, and she let loose a howl that could be heard from miles. Suddenly, I felt a burning in the places the tendrils had touched me. Charging forward, I grabbed his head and shook it so hard with unnatural strength, that it came half off. He toppled to the ground, no signs of his cursed tentacles anywhere on his body. I turned to my brother and sister, in the process of deciding which was more badly hurt. As I turned to Saria, I saw another boar behind her. And another. And another. I looked around the clearing. I was surrounded by boars. Over a hundred of them.

**By the way, (( is the animal version of "**


	7. Okkoto

I don't own Mononoke-hime.

**A lot of diolague (at least for me) in this scene. If you are reading this, _please_ review it, even if it is just a couple of words.**

**Chapter 7: Okkoto**

It did not look good. Me standing over the carcass of the boar, his blood in my mouth. To them, there was no indication that their brother had been the one who had started it. Looking closely at the group of angry warriors, I saw that they had the mark of the Kitaro clan. Feeling a sense of dread, I looked at the boar head that lay at my feet. It was Kitaro. With a battle cry, full of anger over the loss of their leader, they charged me. And Naku. And Saria. Naku was unconscious from his injuries, and Saria could not even get of the ground with her crushed leg. As the boars charged, I felt anger consume me. The rest of the battle was a blur. I was vaguely aware of ghost-like tendrils wrapping around my body. I felt my fangs sink into a boar's throat, my claws disemboweling another, sweep of my huge tails crushing the leg bones of some of the boars around me. As I changed targets I constantly moved to protect my family, the boars kept pressing in. I was fighting like a Demon. But I could not hold on forever. After a matter time the inevitable happened. One boar got through my defenses and knocked me to the ground. I felt the tusks of the boars ravaging me, ripping me to shreds. ((Stop!)) The boars all froze and slowly backed away from me. Blinking away blood that threatened to eclipse my vision, some of it mine, some of it the boars. What I saw was a scene of carnage. Dead boars lay all around me. They were mutilated and not one of them had a drop of life in them. My white fur had so much blood on it that it looked crimson. I looked towards the where the sound of the voice that saved my life came from. It was an old white boar, with four tusks instead of two. He had over eighty boars behind him. They were not of the Kitaro clan. I struggled to my feet. I had managed to keep Naku and Saria alive, but I was badly torn up. ((Who are you?)) I managed to say, fighting to stay upright. ((I am Okkoto.)) he said. ((What happened?))

I told a story about an unprovoked attack without mentioning the evil tendrils and mad fury. While I did not tell him about my past, I revealed all I knew about the events leading up to the fight I had. ((A Demon…)) he muttered. Then he turned to what remained of the Kitaro clan. ((Proud warriors of the Kitaro clan, you are now mine. These wolves fought with him. He died an honorable death, as did all of your fallen comrades. Do not grieve the loss of your master. Join my tribe and live, guard my mountain.)) After a moment, most of the Kitaro tribe joined ranks with Okkoto's boars. Those who didn't were killed. Okkoto turned back to me. ((Come. We will get your brother and sister to the realm of the Forest Spirit. I assume you know where that is.)) I nodded, not telling him that I lived right next to it. ((Its waters can heal many injuries.)) he told me. I already knew that, but decided to play along. He fetched two of his strongest boars, and walked with me to the Shishigami's pool. After setting down my brother and sister in its healing water, Okkoto dismissed his two followers. Once they were gone he turned his attention to me. ((Now tell me what really happened.))


	8. Demon Mark

I don't own Mononoke-hime.

**Another part... And still just 1 review, R&R please!**

**Chapter 8: Demon Mark**

I told Okkoto the whole story. I needed to tell somebody. I was only 14 years old. As I went through everything I remembered, from birth to fighting with that boar. He narrowed his eyes when I had mentioned how my mother died. When I got to the part about the demon tendrils he nodded his head in understanding. ((That explains it. Kitaro was shot by arrows. Humans did this to him,)) I cocked my head, confused. Arrows? Humans? Okkoto noticed my puzzled expression and laughed, a deep grunting sound. ((How old are you?)) he asked. ((14 years, nearing fifteen.)) I said proudly. ((I am over 200 years. I am a god.)) he answered. ((Heed my advice young one. You are made out to be a god someday. But gods must make sacrifices. There are two problems you have. Two trials. One is the humans. They are disgusting little skinny creatures. They have no fur, so they kill us for our skin to warm themselves. They shoot wooden sticks called arrows to wound us. Kitaro had taken three arrows to the heart before he died.)) I was puzzled. ((But how did he fight me like that?)) Okkoto sighed. ((It is a dark world Moro. Things are only growing worse. His hatred against the humans turned him into a demon. And now you are cursed.)) ((What?!)) I barked out in disbelief. ((Look at your reflection.)) he said. I gazed at my mirror image and notice patches of fur that had burned all the way to my flesh. They were marked raggedly with purple splotches. ((You can choose two fates.)) Okkoto said. ((The curse will always be there. Your fur will still grow, but it will always be there. You can use it to defeat enemy and save lives. But this will turn you into a demon. Kitaro did not want to be a demon. But he tried to stop the humans by himself.)) Okkoto sighed. ((It won't be long until the humans tear down our forest. Kill any human you see. Another fate you can choose to fight as hard as you can without giving into blind rage. Keep this in mind.)) I nodded my head. ((You said I have two problems. One is the humans. What is the other?)) I asked. He shook his head. ((I don't know much child. Something evil arrived the night you did. But I can read it in your eyes. You are afraid. Something has been following you, no?)) I looked down. ((Yes.))

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Naku started to cough. I immediately ran over to him. His chest wound was beginning to close at an astounding rate. I could see the bones in Saria's leg reforming. Before either of my siblings could reach shore, Okkoto was gone. They pelted me with questions, and I gave them some answers. I told them about humans. And Demons. The very name stood my fur on end. As we again headed back to our den, I noticed the Shishigami. As soon as I saw it, intense pain shot through my entire body, radiating from my burns. I needed to kill something. Worried that I might kill Naku or Saria in a blind rage, I jumped into the Shishigami's pool. I immediately felt better. As I broke the surface and started swimming ashore, I noticed that I was trailing a stream of blood. Upon checking myself, I realized that this was the blood of the boars I had killed. There was a lot. When I managed to work my way up to my den, I found Saria and Naku fast asleep. Feeling a sense of regret, I left the warm promise of two sleepy and warm bodies and resumed my cold vigil, guarding my den. My marks burned. Although I did not know it, I would face my first trial very soon.


	9. Humans

**I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed and apologize of the delay, I was really busy with another story.**

**Don't own **_**anything**  
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We lived peacefully for another four years. I told my brother and sister about humans and that they should avoid them. I did not tell them of Demons or of my marks. Before my fur grew back to hide the marks, they were obviously curious. But it only took one snarl to convince them to leave the subject alone.

As our twentieth year of life was coming up, I had been giving thought on how to celebrate. Celebration of birthdays is not a usual wolf custom, but everyone could use a little cheering up. After all the challenges we faced, it would be nice to have a family celebration. I had found a giant bone from some long dead creature at the bottom of the Shishigami's lake, and I knew Naku loved to play with bones. I was going to give the shells to my sister, and I knew she would be happy to see them again.

While our life was fairly safe, both Saria and Naku needed something to do. Saria, always a little bit energetic, needed to run around frequently. As for Naku…every night when he thought I could not see him, he would go to the honorary mound that was dedicated to Kikyu and cry. He just couldn't get over his loss. On one particular sunny day I noticed a fox digging at the place where I had hidden Saria's shells. I snuck off without either of them noticing. It had just unearthed them when I came over to it and growled. Without any fear the fox looked at me and smiled before dashing away. It was troubling. The foxes and the wolves had never gotten along very well, and foxes are very clever. If he was digging there he had a reason for it. Taking the shells in my mouth once more until I found another spot to bury them, I rested on a rock, basking on the top of our cave, enjoying the heat. Saria took up her usual position, curled up between my two front feet, and promptly fell asleep. I allowed Naku to take short walks by himself. I could tell that he sometimes just needed to be alone. Still, I had already lost one brother and was not about to loose my only other one. I was always listening for trouble. On that day I could hear Naku sprinting through the brush. He bounded over to me, panting and yipping with excitement. ((Moro!)) Saria jumped out of surprise. I raised my head gave him an angry growl. I did not like it when he woke Saria up. But he was too exited to care. ((Humans! Look!)) he barked, and ran back off into the bushes. ((Naku!)) But he was already gone. This was not good.

I ran off after him, with Saria right by my side. He was fast, but I was faster. Unfortunately, that did not help me, as he had a such a head start that beat me to a clearing, which was his destination. When we reached the clearing I skidded to a halt. In the middle of the clearing was a group of about twenty funny little creatures that stood on two legs. Where these the so-called humans? They didn't look so tough. But then I saw a fox. They were hanging him from a tree, with ropes tied to his legs. They had a big knife and it looked like they were going to skin him alive.

While foxes and wolves may not get along well, no creature of the forest would watch as one would be skinned alive. Killing someone was one thing, but torturing them…That was another. Naku took off, charging the humans. Afraid for him, I took off after him. This would be interesting.

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